{"id":436916,"date":"2025-09-19T20:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/436916\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T20:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:36:10","slug":"france-suspends-counterterrorism-cooperation-with-mali-military-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/436916\/","title":{"rendered":"France suspends counterterrorism cooperation with Mali | Military News"},"content":{"rendered":"

French foreign ministry said it also ordered two members of Mali\u2019s embassy in Paris to leave.<\/p>\n

Published On 19 Sep 202519 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

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France has suspended counterterrorism cooperation with Mali and ordered two staff members of the West African nation\u2019s consulate to leave, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has said.<\/p>\n

The two staff members from the Malian embassy and consulate in Paris have been declared persona non grata, France\u2019s foreign ministry added, while Mali declared five French embassy staff members persona non grata.<\/p>\n

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The suspension announced on Friday comes after a French man, Yann Vezilier<\/a>, was arrested in Mali last month on charges of plotting a coup.<\/p>\n

Mali\u2019s army said at the time that some civilians and soldiers had obtained \u201cthe help of foreign states\u201d in their attempt to destabilise the country.<\/p>\n

Mali\u2019s security minister, General Daoud Aly Mohammedine, said Vezilier had acted \u201con behalf of the French intelligence service, which mobilised political leaders, civil society actors and military personnel\u201d in Mali.<\/p>\n

Paris said the charges were \u201cunfounded\u201d.<\/p>\n

The French foreign ministry said Vezilier was a member of its embassy in the capital Bamako.<\/p>\n

The two Malian diplomats being expelled were told to leave in response to Vezilier\u2019s arrest, a French diplomatic source told the AFP news agency. French media reported that they had to leave by Saturday.<\/p>\n

The source added that \u201cother measures\u201d would be implemented soon, \u201cif our national is not released quickly\u201d.<\/p>\n

France said in August that it was in talks with Mali to \u201cclear up any misunderstanding\u201d and secure the \u201cimmediate release\u201d of the arrested envoy.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s formerly strong ties with Mali, an ex-French colony, have deteriorated since soldiers took control nearly four years ago.<\/p>\n

Under President Assimi Goita, the military government has distanced itself from France, expelling French forces and seeking security support from Russia.<\/p>\n

Impoverished Mali has been\u00a0gripped by a security crisis<\/a>\u00a0since 2012, fuelled notably by violence from armed groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) group, as well as local criminal gangs.<\/p>\n

In June, Goita extended his rule for another five years, defying earlier assurances from the military government that civilian leadership would resume by March 2024.<\/p>\n

The extension came after the military disbanded political parties in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French foreign ministry said it also ordered two members of Mali\u2019s embassy in Paris to leave. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2740,37883,6178,2000,299,36,2743,2597,12,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-436916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-armed-groups","10":"tag-conflict","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-mali","15":"tag-military","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115232884798308498","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}